LETTER: A27 decided a long time ago

Published:10:00Saturday 11 March 2017

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Re. Chichester A27, BBC South local news on March 1 reported from Westminster that ‘the Conservative Government were fed up with Conservative councils not supporting Government proposals and were making an example of Sussex by cancelling Chichester A27 and withdrawing the funds’.

My long conversation with a BBC programme producer confirmed this.

This explains Chris Grayling’s shallow responses to our email/letters as he’d decided a long time ago what he wanted.

He was not interested to inform himself why WSCC, CDC and the majority of consultation respondents did not support the Highways England proposals.

Mr Tyrie’s letter to Chris Grayling (February 14), asking for ‘a comprehensive comparison of all options’ was too little and far too late and was ignored.

Substantial reasons why the northern options were dropped have still not appeared.

So much easier to blame and punish.

If Party Obedience is the Government’s stick, what function did Chris Grayling think this public consultation had?

Did he expect our councillors to ignore/override their constituents, tick the box ‘consultation done’ and mindlessly obey?

However, Chris Grayling’s announcement is highly acceptable to the majority of consultation respondents as ‘No Option is better than a Bad Option’.

The root of the problem lies with the quality of Highways England’s proposals – the incompleteness of the ‘indicative drawings’; the out-of-date through traffic data; the absence of understanding and factoring in the proposals’ impacts on local traffic movements, landscape, environment, air quality; cutting the Manhood peninsula off from everywhere.

Negatives which don’t justify a £280m spend for a small gain for through traffic and continued congestion and misery for all other journeys and residents.

And yet, there is no criticism of Highways England from Chris Grayling.